After the tech boom - what's India's next big thing?

But a separate school of thought is advancing a more pessimistic argument - that India's Midas touch with IT services has actually already ruined its chances of generating entrepreneurs in other parts of the tech industry.

To fuel the next stage of its growth India is looking for a new wave of tech upstarts, and venture capitalists are hungrily eyeing India as one the investment hotspots of the future.

Mark G Heesen, president of the US National Venture Capital Association is upbeat: "[Venture capital] is finally moving out of the US and into many different places in the world and that's a good thing," he told silicon.com.

And while China is attractive for the size of its market, India is interesting for its entrepreneurs, he said. He told the Nasscom Indian Leadership Forum recently: "In the next 10 years I put a lot more faith in what is happening in India from a venture capital perspective than in other parts of the world.

"In India entrepreneurs can see a much broader issue and the long-term ramifications of innovation and that's what a venture capitalist is looking for."

And, as well as foreign venture capitalists, local business angels - often tech veterans that have already made money in India's IT services boom - are also looking at funding new businesses. Some industry watchers are confident that in India VCs will find plenty of interest, with Jayant Sinha, MD of Courage Capital Management, describing the Indian IT and BPO industry as a very mature and vibrant sector.

He told Nasscom: "Everywhere you look across the investment spectrum we are finding very interesting investment opportunities."

But venture capitalists looking for a Google clone are unlikely to come away happy. Innovation is unlikely to follow the PC-centric model that it has in Silicon Valley. PC penetration is much lower in India than in the US, whereas mobile phone subscriptions are racing ahead. As a result, hot areas for entrepreneurs are likely to be around wireless applications and gaming.

And even if VCs find the right entrepreneurs, they may find that others have got there already. A report published by Evalueserve last year warned that the Indian market was getting overheated, with too much money chasing too few deals.

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